Thanksgiving #2 in Kenya

Last year for Thanksgiving my training class was still in PST and we put together an American food feast as best we could and rounded out the day with turkey day themed crafts and a skit. So, the only way to top last years thanksgiving was to have TWO thanksgivings, and the lucky girl that I am, that is exactly what I had! I spent Thanksgiving day in Kisumu with other PCVs where we cooked a turkey. Well, actually, cooked is an understatement. What we really did was bought a live turkey in the market, slaughtered it, cleaned it and then we cooked it. We also made all the usual Thanksgiving accompaniments including: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, gravy and apple pie for dessert. Can someone say delicious? What's really funny is that I had a more traditional Thanksgiving than my parents who ate prime rib. Here are some photos from my Kisumu Thanksgiving... (Warning: Some pictures are slightly graphic)




Now to Thanksgiving #2. My second Thanksgiving was back at my site. There is an NGO near me called LALMBA and there are two Americans volunteering there and they were nice enough to have all the ex-pats in the area over for Thanksgiving on Saturday. So it was the 3 PCVs in the area, the two LALMBA volunteers and two Americans who work for the NGO WISER that is near Muhuru Bay. Same story with the turkey for this Thanksgiving, we bought it live and took it all the way to the table. But, unlike in Kisumu, there wasn't a functioning oven so we improvised and came up with a jiko setup to cook the turkey. It was a lot of fun to get all the ex-pats in the region together and since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, it was nice to celebrate all over again. Here are some pictures from this Thanksgiving!
Proof of our amazing Thanksgiving feast
Matt from LALMBA carving the turkey that he killed with his bare hands
The jiko cooking improvisation that cooked our turkey to perfection!
Charlie, Chris and I. The three PC volunteers in their non-PC head wear.

Back to Loitokitok

Back to Loitokitok - with a quick stop in Kibwezi


After finishing with exams and grades at my school I packed up and headed to Nairobi en route to PST for the newest group of education volunteers.

An HIV/AIDS workshop had been planned for Mon and Tues of the week when we were to be in Loitokitiok so we were lucky enough to get to go instead to Kibwezi for a few days. Jenny and I got to sit in on sessions talking about HIV/AIDS in Kenya and we also visited a local CBO (community based organization) that is doing work with OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) and we visited a primary school where the students performed skits, dances and songs about preventing the spread of HIV and taking care of family members with HIV/AIDS. There is a picture above of the students performing a dance and the one below is a picture of all the trainees.



After the HIV/AIDS workshop in Kibwezi it was time to head to Loitokitok and Jenny and I had quite the adventure getting back. There was some miscommunication with the PC training staff as to how Jenny and I were supposed to get back. First we were told we could go with the PC vehicle but when we got to the vehicle they said there wasn't enough room but we could go with the buses that were going to carry the trainees. When we got to the buses for the trainees we were once again told there was no room for us and that we should go with the PC vehicle, since there was no room in the PC vehicle we asked if they could at least take our bags and luckily there was at least enough room for those to make our travel easier. So, after some confusion, Jenny and I were on our own to get to Loitokitok. But, no problem right? We're experienced PCVs here in Kenya, we can do this no problem.... We left Kibwezi and headed to Makindu where we wanted to stop and have lunch at the Sheikh Temple (I highly recommend stopping here to anyone in the area, the food is delicious Indian food and it's all by donation) which was really the only highlight of the trip thanks to the events that ensued. I swear I'm not complaining because it really was hilarious! But, here's what happened next: The matatu that we got from Makindu to Emali was so jam packed that the tout was leaning over the back of my seat and his face was less than a milimeter from my face and Jenny said it looked like I had two heads, apparently having another persons face that close to my own face makes me really uncomfortable but there was no where for me to go so I just laughed awkwardly and hoped the trip was short. In Emali we found a matatu to Loitokitok but this leg of the trip was doomed from the start. The matatu started having engine problems as soon as we left Emali but instead of turning around right then or going to a mechanic in the substantial town of Emali we weaved back and forth across the road to make it up the tiniest of inclines on the road. About halfway to Loitokitok we had to stop in the middle of nowhere in a tiny tiny village and have someone look at the engine, it was getting fairly close to dark so Jenny and I were a little worried, but it didnt take too long before we were on our way. About 20KM from LTK we were told to switch to a station wagon that smelled completely AWFUL (we decided it smelled like feet, pickled goat and BO) and I was sitting next to quite possibly the creepiest guy in Kenya, he had super long fingernails that were dyed a weird color and he kept saying "welcome customer" in a really creepy voice and we think he was trying to sell us his nail dye. I also think he had sniffed too much nail dye fumes because he seemed kind of out of it and passed out across the passenger on the other side of him about 5 minutes before we finally arrived in Loitokitok. Ok, so we are finally at our destination, so the adventure is over right? Nope. Jenny and I quickly grabbed some dinner to-go in town and headed to our guest house. Along the way there was a huge section of the road that was flooded and really muddy and when we were trying to get across this mud puddle/cow pie mess I fell. Perfect. I did the splits and ended up totally covered in mud. When I recovered to a standing (wobbling) position my skirt was so heavy with mud that it kept falling down to my knees and Jenny had to help me pull it up since my hands were full of stuff. My shoes were so muddy that they wouldnt stay on and my feet were slipping around, making the short walk a lot harder than it should have been. We finally made it to our guest house where I was able to take a much needed shower, but not before Jenny took some pictures for evidence of our ordeal. It was a really really long day, but Jenny and I laughed the whole time because everything that happened was just so absolutely ridiculous. I'm glad Jenny was there with me so we could laugh at everything and also so I have a witness that I am not making this stuff up! So, if nothing else, the day was highly entertaining.

Here is the aftermath of my fall in the mud. Don't I look happy?


In Loitokitok, Jenny and I led sessions about dealing with corporal punishment in schools, classroom management and discipline. It was so great to meet the new trainees and its fun to be around them since they are so full of enthusiasm and optimism! I think they are an excellent group and I can't wait for them to get to site and see the things that they are doing in their schools. I also got the chance to visit my homestay family and that was a blast! It was crazy to be back in the house where I had stayed a year ago and think of all the things that have happened since then and how my views of Kenya have changed and grown. It was so nice to see my Mama, I miss her like crazy! She is the sweetest woman and I have her to thank for my cooking, clothes washing and Kenyan house keeping skills! She had a baby a few months ago, little baby Alvin, so I can now add another brother to my list of Kenyan family. Isn't he adorable?

Nearing the End (Week 9 & 10)

Week 9: Last week of teaching

Week 9, in addition to marking my 1 year in Kenya, was the last week of teaching at my school. Originally we were going to teach through the end of week 10 but because there hasn't been enough rain, the school administration worried that the drinking water would soon run out and so they moved the schools closing date up by a week. This sent all the teachers into high gear and we were all busy trying to cram the rest of the topics in the syllabus into the last week of school. I am happy to report that I was able to finish the syllabus in all of my classes, which is a real accomplishment, considering how huge the Kenya syllabus is and most teachers in Kenya do not finish the syllabus, leaving topics that have to be covered the next year. (This syllabus "debt" is never really made up and eventually the students suffer in form 4 when they can't finish all the topics in a subject). Over the weekend I played a review game with both of the form 2 classes and also with the two form 1 classes. The students enjoy the game, or maybe they just enjoy the stickers they get for winning, but I also like to think they are learning and revising as well so they can do well on their exams.

Week 10: Exams

All the forms started their exams this week and they will continue until the middle of next week. Form 3 students are taking exams that will determine if the school will allow them to become form 4s next year, and therefore, take the KCSE at Bande Girls. The government passed a law that no student should be held back because of failing grades, but some schools have adopted passing marks that the students must obtain in order to proceed to the next class. While it is understandable that many parents don't want to, or don't have the means to, pay for an extra year of secondary school, some students really do need to repeat a grade if they are going to have any chance of doing well on the KSCE. Speaking of which, the KCSE was completed this week and the 26 form 4 students have now left the school. They will return around February or March of next year to get their results from the school, but they are no longer students, they are now full fledged adults in Kenyan society.

My form 1 students continued to perform well in biology, but I think they can tell that everything is getting harder with more and more information being added and the concepts becoming more complicated, and, of course, some of them need a wake up call to start working harder in class. Overall, I was really happy with their performance and many of them continue to improve from their previous exam grades. The form 2 class did not make me as happy. The highest grade in my form 2 biology class was a 33%. I was really disappointed in their performance. It can be really discouraging to feel like you are working so hard to provide the students with everything they need to succeed, only to have them fail. A good illustration was one of the questions on the exam, it was a diagram and they had to identify what the diagram was of. The diagram in question was of a nephron in the kidney. I had made multiple posters of this diagram, made a model out of straws and string that was posted in the class and that the students could also take down to study, I also checked all of their notebooks to make sure they had drawn it correctly, and during the review game all the teams were to draw and label the same diagram. The diagrams and the model were displayed in the classroom for the last 3-4 weeks, and, when it came to the exam, some students still couldn't write that the diagram was of the nephron. Sigh. This is the pinnacle of my discouragement since being here. But, the results were not all bad, there was one major bright spot. All but 2 students were able to properly draw the graph from the graph question, which is an aspect of the exam that we have been working to improve all of this term. (There was one exam where none of my students got any points on the graph question). I was really happy with how they did on that part of the exam and since there is always a graph question included on the KCSE which counts for a lot of the points in the 3rd paper, this is a great improvement. I guess this tells me that I need to work with my students on their study skill and their test taking skills and teach them how to read and study for understanding, not just for memorization purposes. There is always more work to do...

After I finished marking all of my exams and calculating the final end term grades for my students, I packed a bag and cleaned my house as I am now headed back to Loitokitok to help with PST for the new group of Math/Science Education volunteers. I am excited to go back to Loitokitok and see my home stay family and also to meet the new volunteers. By the time I return to site school will be closed, so I said a sad good bye to my students until school starts again in January. My plans for December include our mid-service medical exams in Nairobi (can't wait to see everyone from my group again), another Girls' Camp similar to the one I helped organize in August, at a local girls secondary school, some research on future projects and hopefully a nice vacation for Christmas and New Years.

THE ONE YEAR MARK!!!

1 YEAR IN COUNTRY

November 4th officially marked the one year anniversary of me being in Kenya. On November 1st of last year I said goodbye to my parents in the airport and left for staging in Philadelphia where I met the other 24 volunteers in my training class. After the long flights it takes to get here we finally arrived on November 4th in Nairobi ready to start our Peace Corps adventure. I should note that since arriving in Kenya not a single volunteer from my training class has gone home, no medical separations, no administrative separations, we are all still here. We all survived to the one year mark, which is incredibly rare (maybe even unheard of) in Peace Corps. Here is a document from the Peace Corps Wiki site about numbers of applicants and volunteers that make it to various landmarks in service.










So, on average, out of 100% of trainees that make it to their country 90% are sworn in as volunteers at the end of Pre-Service Training (PST). Then out of all the volunteers sworn in 83% make it to the one year mark. So, statistically speaking, we should have lost 2 trainees during PST and then another 4 since then. But, obviously, our training group is amazing and we have all survived to this point. I should also mention that if it were not for these amazing individuals (and other PCVs here in Kenya) I would probably not have survived to this point. My training class has truly become like a second family to me here and their support is the most valuable resource I have on the rough days, they know what it's like to be living and working in Kenya, they let me vent and help me find solutions to the problems that I face. I love them and I am so proud of our group! I can't wait to see them all again and reunite when we go to Nairobi for our mid-service medical exams.

In the last 12 months I have learned an incredible amount about the world, myself, Kenya, teaching and life in general. I have a new found respect for teachers all over the world and also have a new level of appreciation for all the things that I had in my life growing up and am lucky to have now. Since arriving and undergoing an understandable amount of culture-shock it's amazing to me how normal my life here now seems. Often, when I talk to my friends and family back home, they tell me what an amazing thing I am doing and comment on how hard it must be to be living here "roughing it". But, to me, most of my days seem completely normal and I have adapted to living in rural Kenya, this is enhanced by having such a normal daily routine because of school. I am no longer phased by using the outdoor pit latrine, I no longer even think twice about it (except after dusk because around that time the bat that resides in my latrine likes to come and go, nothing like having a bat interrupt a bathroom break). And nothing seems more normal than washing my clothes and dishes by hand. I have also noticed that some of my instincts have changed, however subtly. Now when it starts to rain I immediately get up and put my buckets outside to catch water, when did this become my natural reaction to the noise of rain on the roof? I have also lost the instinct to reach for a light switch when I enter a room, my house was wired for electricity a couple weeks ago and I still find myself coming home in the evening and going to light my lantern or candles... Which, truth be told, has been totally justified lately, as the power hasn't been on for the last week anyway. My entertainment has shifted from TV in the states to books here in Kenya and in the last 12 months I have read 36 books. I guess that's what not having electricity will do for you.

Despite all of the ways my life now seems completely and totally normal to me, there are of course some things that I will never get used to seeing (or hearing). I still have an incredibly hard time with societies view of women (men are superior, women should serve their husbands in every aspect), of violence (caning in schools, beating in the household), and the corruption (I won't even go into it here) and it still gets to me to see the poverty in this country. By now its a lot easier to block out the kids and adults yelling "mzungu, mzungu. How are you?" But there is still a part of me that hates the attention and there is still a part of me that can't help but be indignant when a total stranger asks me for money or asks me to marry him and take him to America. Kenya is a beautiful, rich, amazing country and it hurts me to know that so many of its citizens don't see the potential here, but would rather ask for handouts or escape to the States. My Peace Corps experience has been full of ups and downs but luckily the ups have far out weighed the downs. I love my students, I enjoy my fellow teachers and when all is said and done, I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to work here and I am happy.

When we were in training someone told us that our two years here will be the shortest long time in our lives. I understand the sentiment now. In so many ways it does not feel like I have actually been here for a year, the time has flown by (but it does feel like I have been away from home for a very very very long time). When I think about how quickly the first year went I start to panic because there are so many things I want to accomplish before I leave. There are so many projects that could be done here, so many things that could improve my school and the lives of my students, that it is easy to feel overwhelmed and feel that I have accomplished nothing since I arrived. But, if I look at the little things, like students who have gained self confidence, the small strides in their academic progress, the change in opinion from some of my staff about things like caning and female circumsision and wife inheritance, then I feel like I have made a difference in the last year but mostly I feel incredibly excited for the things that I will accomplish in the next 12 months. If the first year served no other purpose than to orient me to life here, become acquainted with my community and the needs of my school and students, then it has been incredibly successful and it will make my future projects have a larger impact and be all the more sustainable. So, here's to the next 12 months.

An Ex-Pat Halloween (Week 8)

Week 8 of the term was packed with lab activities for my students. I think all my poster making and lab activity flaunting in the staff room has finally started to pay off because one of the other biology teachers came to me and wanted to plan a fairly complicated lab activity with the students. I was really excited by this, so this week we had all the form 2 students dissect a liver (which we just finished studying) lungs (studied them last term) and then tested the tissue for the presence and concentration of catalase (enzyme) by placing them in hydrogen peroxide and watching the catalase do its magic as it changes the hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water. The next day in class we discussed the practical as a class and it was one of the first times that my students have really been able to synthesize their observations into biological conclusions and I was so happy to see their critical thinking skills improving. Then, after a long week of teaching, practicals and secondary project work, I headed to Kisumu to celebrate Halloween with a bunch of PCVs and some other ex-pat friends who are in the area. It wasn't all fun and games though, I did do some work on the sessions that I am going to be teaching at the new education groups training when I head back to Loitokitok in a few weeks, but more on that later. Here are some pictures from the halloween party, Mike and I dressed up as the Green Monkey from the Nickeloden tv show Legends of the Hidden Temple, and if you don't get the reference to one of the best shows of my childhood than I don't know if we can be friends. Mike and I actually won the costume contest at the party!

Happy Halloween

Jenny in her Jack-O-Lantern costume that she sewed herself!

Jenny, Me and Whitney the cavewoman

Green Monkeys! We're going to take the grand prize and go to SPACE CAMP!
(big shout out to Whitney for drawing our monkeys and making the lovely medallions that will save us from the temple gaurds)

Neil as a mzungu (white person/tourist), Rich, Amber the flapper and the jack-o-lantern

Week 7: Teacher on Duty

Every week there is a “teacher on duty” or TOD. The TOD is responsible for all the activities at the school for that week, including supervising preps, manual work and being responsible for disciplining any students who are caught breaking the rules during the week. This means that the TOD gets to wake up at 4am and make sure the students are in morning preps on time and then staying late into the evening until the students go to sleep at 10pm. It’s a lot of responsibility and no teacher likes to be the teacher on duty. This week was my week to be the TOD and it left me exhausted every evening when I finally got home. I had some issues with caning on Monday, a number of teachers were caning students for various reasons and it was just too much for me to handle so I had to go home for the day and try to calm down, we had a staff meeting that evening where I was able to bring up the issues that I continue to have with how caning is used in the school as a form of discipline. I understand that caning is deeply ingrained in the culture here and I know its not going to go away over night but together as a staff we were able to make some progress toward moving away from caning as a first live of punishment. We also decided that next week the Guidance and Counseling department will meet with the entire school to come up with alternative forms of punishments and then the discipline committee is going to meet and come up with guideline of what punishments should be administered for the various rules when they are broken by a student. This will give the TOD a clear guideline of how to discipline the students which will making being TOD easier and it will also provide some consistency in the punishments which our school is currently lacking. So, although Monday was a fairly traumatizing day for me, I think a lot of good was able to come out of it. Wednesday was a holiday: Kenyatta Day. So there were no classes after 10:30 and the students went to the field to play volleyball, football, handball, netball and the rest of the students played with the frisbees that my parents had brought them. It was fun to be out in the field with the students and it was also nice to see the students getting a break from the usual demanding class schedule. There are only about 3 more weeks of classes left in the term and that has put stress on the staff and the students to get through the remainder of the syllabus before school ends for the year. This week in my form 2 class we dissected a kidney and the students worked in groups and presented on the various kidney diseases, both of these activities turned out really well and I continue to be amazed at the change that I see in my students from how they were when I first arrived. Their public speaking skills have really improved and I can tell that they are more confident when they stand in front of the class, this is one of my small victories that I cherish. Now it's the weekend and I am off to meet with the LALMBA association. The director of LALMBA is in the country and 2 American volunteers just arrived at their clinic so I am going to go and welcome them to the area and talk about ways we can collaborate on projects in the future. Here are some pictures from our weekly Guidance and Counseling sessions that are held on Wednesdays, some pictures are from when Diana, a form 3 student, presented on drugs and drug abuse and some are from when Mr Mugesani, the assistant to me in the Guidance and Counseling department, talked about decision making. I also included some pictures of how I spent last weekend - washing all my clothes, and of the second scorpion friend that I have found in my house. Enjoy!

Term 3 cont.

Week 4: Girls Education

During the week a Girls Education meeting was held by the Nyanza Womens Group for Girl Child Education. All the schools in the district brought their female students to St. Gemma Girls' Secondary School. A number of important guests were in attendance and gave speeches to the girls encouraging them to stay in school, to achieve in the sciences and to put their education before marriage. The District Education Officer (DEO) gave a speech during which he said "Marriage before career is slavery". He said the same thing when he visited Bande, but I just love that quote. This sentiment may not be true for women in the States, but it is definitely true for women here. If a woman is not educated and has no way to support herself than she is totally dependent on her husband. This can mean she has to ask permission to leave the house, has to ask for money to buy even the most basic things and in essence, becomes a slave to her husband. This can put the woman into a situation where she is abused but has no resources to leave her husband. Or in a country where the HIV rate is about 8%, if her husband dies, she has no way to support herself or her children. There were also a number of important female business women who came from Nairobi who spoke at the event including the manager of the Kenya Literature Bureau (the company that prints all the text books in Kenya) who is from Nyanza. The whole day was inspiring and the students really enjoyed hearing from all these important people who encouraged them to do well and made them feel like people care about them and their future.

Week 5: World Vision / Ruma

When I first came to Bande I asked the principal what the major issues facing the students was and one of the things that she told me was that the students have an extremely hard time buying sanitary pads and this can lead them to use unsanitary measures during their period or they simply do not attend class when they have their period. In the worst case scenario, female students will go to extreme measures to try and earn money to buy pads, which does not exclude sleeping with men for money. So, since that time I have been working to try and get reusable pads donated to the school to help with this problem. This week all my hard work paid off when World Vision came to my school and brought 50 packs of reusable pads for my students. The students who received the pads were a list that my principal put together of the 50 girls who could use them the most. The students were so grateful and happy to receive the pads and I was so touched by the thank you speeches they gave. The students talked about what a huge difference this is going to make in their lives and what a relief it is to them that they no longer have to worry about how they will buy pads every month. There was also a form 4 (12th grade) students who talked about what a big difference this is going to make for her when she takes the KCSE, the national exam that starts in a few weeks, because now she will be able to focus on the exam instead of how to attend to her period. The whole day made me really happy and also reminded me of all the little things that we take for granted in the States. Here are some pictures from the day: The representatives from World Vision talking to the students, a student giving a thank you speech, me with the students and then a group picture (not all of the students who received pads were in the picture).






Over the weekend I went to Ruma National Park with Chris, Dom and Mike. Ruma NP is the only major NP in Nyanza and it is known for the herds of Roan antelope that can only be seen here. The park is outside of Homa Bay and we had some difficulties getting out there, but when we finally made it, it was so worth the trouble! We camped in the park which was absolutely beautiful and it was so much fun to go camping again, I don't think I realized how much I missed camping until we went. We had a good time trying to get a fire started and finally had to get help from one of the KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) employees. The view from the camp site was amazing and it was nice to relax, hang out and drink some wine with friends. In the morning we set off walking in the park, we saw giraffe and a ton of Roan but on our way back to the campsite we were intercepted by some KWS officers who informed us that walking in the park is illegal... oops. So they drove us back to the campsite and oversaw our packing up of camp and then us leaving the park, but at least we didn't get a fine (or arrested as Dom suggested to the KWS officer). The whole weekend was a blast and it was a nice break from the school routine. Some pictures from the park:


















Week 6: Stima! + prayer day

I GOT STIMA (electricity) IN MY HOUSE!!!!! After months of being told that electricity was coming to the school, it finally happened. The classrooms, staffroom lab and the dorms were all wired about a week ago but it took longer to get all the houses on the school compound hooked up. When I signed up for Peace Corps I never expected to have electricity in my house, but now that I have it I am so happy! It is so nice to be able to charge my phone and computer anytime I need to, instead of having to rely on the solar panels at the school. It has made it so much easier to do work on my computer which has made me more productive and more connected to the outside world. It also means that I stay up later since I have light to cook and read by, and its a lot easier to flip a light switch rather than lighting a lantern every night. The power still goes out fairly often so I'm not getting rid of my lantern and candles, but electricity is AMAZING! Here are some pictures of the demolition (kind of) that went on to wire the house and my new outlets and light bulbs in my house. It may not be as exciting for those of you at home but I can tell you that many a PCV over here is now jealous of me!







Sunday the school held a “prayer day” for the form 4s in preparation for the start of the KCSE. The KCSE is the national exam that students take at the end of form 4 and covers all the subjects that students have studied and all the material the students have covered from form 1 all the way to form 4. The exam is given over two weeks and the results basically determine the rest of the students life. The scores are used to determine entrance into universities, colleges, technical colleges and are also used for hiring in all job positions. Even when a Kenyan is in their 40’s and applying for a job they still have to provide their KCSE score and many job openings give a minimum grade that applicants have to have obtained in order to be eligible. So, you know, no pressure or anything. I really don’t think there is any way that I could have passed an exam like the KCSE, the exams are hours long and many subjects have multiple papers and each one takes hours to complete. For example, in biology there are three different papers, or exams, that make up the total biology exam. The first paper is all short answer, the second paper has graph questions and essays and the third paper is the practical paper where the student is given a lab experiment that they have to carry out and then answer questions about, its a tough exam to say the least. I do not envy the students who have to take the KCSE. Prayer day was a chance for the parents of the form 4s to come and pray that the students perform well in their exams. All of the teachers and students attended the event and the form 4s performed a number of songs and parents and guests gave speeches of encouragement to the form 4s. Here are some pictures from the event: